The country's tourism growth provides a solid foundation for economic development.Continue reading
2024 was a record year for tourism: the number of overnight stays increased by 6 percent to 44.2 million, while the number of guests rose by 11 percent. Hungary is an attractive tourist destination at international level, with 10 percent more overnight stays, the Ministry of National Economy said in a commentary on the latest statistics.
According to data from the Hungarian Central Statistics Office (KSH) and the National Tourism Data Service Centre (NTAK), 1.3 million guests stayed in Hungary in December 2024, up 11 percent year-on-year. Hungary’s popularity is growing among both domestic and international tourists. The number of guests arriving in Hungary from abroad was 715,000, more than 20 percent higher than in December 2023. In the last month of the year, domestic accommodation registered nearly 3 million guest nights, 8.4 percent more than in December 2023. Domestic guests spent 1.2 million nights in hotels, while 1.7 million nights spent by foreign guests were nearly 15 percent higher than last December.
As noted by the Ministry, in December, about 47 percent of the country’s total accommodation turnover, nearly 1.4 million nights, were registered in rural areas.
Domestic guests accounted for 74 percent of the nights spent outside Budapest, with Lake Balaton again proving to be the most popular destination.
In Budapest, the number of nights spent by foreign guests increased by almost 20 percent. As a result of increased travel, the revenue of accommodation establishments reached nearly HUF 90 billion (EUR 220.6 million), up 22.3 percent compared to 2023. In total, HUF 166.2 billion (EUR 407 million) of revenue was generated in restaurants, an increase of 10.4 percent compared to the last month of the previous year.
Lake Balaton. Photo: Pixabay
It was also pointed out that in 2024, a total of 18 million guests arrived at accommodation establishments in Hungary, up by nearly 11 percent compared to 2023. The number of domestic guests was around 9.3 million, while 8.7 million guests arrived from abroad.
For the year as a whole, the number of domestic guests increased by 5.2 percent and the number of guests from abroad by more than 17 percent.
In 2024, Lake Balaton was again the most popular tourist region, with domestic guests accounting for 70 percent of the total number of nights spent in the countryside.
The Ministry emphasized that the data shows that Hungarian families are spending an increasing amount of money on travel and recreation. They added that this can be seen in the spectacular growth in consumption, the dynamic increase in the number of housing transactions, and soaring domestic tourism.
They stressed that tourism is a strategically important sector, a key pillar of Hungary’s economy, providing livelihoods for some 400,000 families. Given its performance last year, it has become one of the main drivers of the economy.
Via MTI, Featured photo via Pixabay